The FEL TEMP REPARATIO ("happy times are returning") coinage was one of the most ambitious bronze issues in late Roman history, launched in 348 AD to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of Rome's founding. Aquileia was one of several western mints tasked with the output, and the volume was enormous — the series flooded circulation across the empire for years. RIC VIII 118 belongs to the falling horseman type, the most politically charged of the three FEL TEMP subtypes, depicting the humiliation of a barbarian enemy at a moment when Constans was under genuine military pressure on the Danubian frontier.
Constans himself was dead within two years of this issue, overthrown and killed by the usurper Magnentius in January 350.
The FEL TEMP REPARATIO ("happy times are returning") coinage was one of the most ambitious bronze issues in late Roman history, launched in 348 AD to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of Rome's founding. Aquileia was one of several western mints tasked with the output, and the volume was enormous — the series flooded circulation across the empire for years. RIC VIII 118 belongs to the falling horseman type, the most politically charged of the three FEL TEMP subtypes, depicting the humiliation of a barbarian enemy at a moment when Constans was under genuine military pressure on the Danubian frontier.
Constans himself was dead within two years of this issue, overthrown and killed by the usurper Magnentius in January 350.